Egypt's reinstatement of Information Ministry is a setback

New York, July
12, 2011--The reinstatement of Egypt's Information
Ministry that was abolished in February constitutes a substantial setback for
media freedom in Egypt, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On Saturday, Field Marshal Hussein
Tantawi, head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), swore
in the former editor-in-chief of the daily Al-Wafd, Osama Heikal, as minister of information. Tantawi
asked Heikal to "reorganize the Egyptian media and draw up a plan that
addresses all the shortcomings that came from abolishing the post of minister
of information," a military source told Agence
France-Presse. The ministry and the post of information minister were scrapped
in February, just days after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. Doing away with the
ministry--viewed by many journalists and press freedom advocates as the
propaganda arm of Mubarak's regime--was a key demand of members of the 18-day
revolution that took place in January and February.

"Reinstating
the Ministry of Information is an unambiguous setback for media freedom in
Egypt," said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator
Mohamed Abdel Dayem. "A government body
whose primary function was to enforce media orthodoxy and punish dissent during
decades of authoritarian rule is not a suitable entity to reform the media
sector."

On Sunday, the National Coalition for
Media Freedom, an alliance that includes 13 human rights groups, research
organizations, trade unions, and 20 media activists rejected the
appointment, saying in a statement
that it constituted "a step backwards with the liberalization of media policy
and independence from the executive power, stressing that the Ministry of
Information exists only in totalitarian states and dictatorships."

The reinstatement of the infamous and
unpopular ministry at this critical juncture is of particular concern. In
recent months, the SCAF and other organs of the state, particularly military
prosecutors and courts, have censored media, harassed journalists in
an effort to intimidate and dissuade them from further critical reporting, and imprisoned at least one
blogger for his critical writing.